Razer Blade 16 (2025) hands-on impressions: A thinner, more powerful gaming laptop
In many ways, the new Blade 16 looks like its predecessor. Until you lift it...
Note: This feature was first published on 7 January 2025.
Razer’s Blade 16 has been redesigned for 2025, sporting a thinner and more refined build, alongside a host of significant upgrades under the hood. The latest iteration of the gaming laptop also finally sees the company shift towards a more svelte form factor, while introducing powerful silicon from NVIDIA and AMD and an improved keyboard and speaker system. At a private Razer demo that took place earlier today, I had the chance to take a quick peek at the laptop.
One of the most notable changes is the switch to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, which marks the first time Razer has incorporated an AMD processor into the Blade 16 series. The move to AMD is likely to appeal to users seeking a more efficient alternative to Intel’s offerings, and a Razer rep told me that early tests showed promising potential for battery longevity and a more efficient thermal management. It will also pack up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, with 24GB of GDDR7 VRAM and pushes up to a maximum of 155W TGP, to deliver high-end gaming performance.
Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to run any benchmarks or even game demos. So we’ll have to wait till a review unit arrives in our lab to gauge the laptop’s true performance.
The 2025 Blade 16 comes with a good assortment of ports and connectivity. Image: HWZ
Yes, it's easier to hold it up with just one hand now. Image: HWZ
But despite the expected performance gains, Razer has managed to slim down the new Blade 16 by over 30 percent in volume compared to last year’s model. The laptop now measures just 14.9mm in thickness at the front and 17.4mm at the rear, and the differences in weight and size are immediately noticeable when placed next to the older Blade (see photo below). To put that in perspective, it’s only marginally thicker than the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4, which sits at 15.5mm at its tallest point. Despite this, Razer has managed to increase the travel of the Blade 16 keyboard, now offering 1.5mm of travel compared to the previous 1mm and this small tweak completely changes the quality of life when typing. There’s also a Copilot key now, effectively making the 2025 Blade 16 a Copilot+ PC. Not that it should matter to gamers, in my opinion.
Chonky Blade 16 (2024) is out. Slim and svelte Blade 16 (2025) is in. Image: HWZ
The improvement made to the keyboard in the latest Blade 16 cannot be understated. Image: HWZ
However, the laptop’s slimmer profile does come with trade-offs. The Blade 16 features a 90Wh battery, a slight reduction from the 95Wh battery found in the 2024 model. Despite this, Razer claims the laptop can reach 80 percent charge in just 45 minutes, thanks to its fast-charging capabilities. While this improvement in charging speed is welcome, I’m curious how much game time can the Blade 16 provide when not tethered to a power point. My guess is, not much. Again, this has to wait till we get to review the laptop proper but as the case with such high-end gaming laptops, you’re going to want to, or have to, plug it to a power source when gaming.
The same Razer rep also told me thermal management is another area where Razer has focused attention. The 2025 Blade 16 is equipped with a new thermal gel that promises to improve heat dissipation by covering a larger area inside the chassis. This is an important upgrade, considering the older Blade 16 throttles very quickly during gaming sessions, no thanks to a poor thermal coverage. Whether the new cooling solution can handle the extra heat caused by the power draw of the AMD chip and NVIDIA GPU will be key in the laptop’s overall performance.
The only key hardware that remained unchanged, and in a good way, is the brilliant OLED display. Image: HWZ
On the audio front, Razer has increased the speaker array from four to six, which should result in improved sound quality, particularly when gaming and watching movies. The laptop retains the astonishingly good 240Hz OLED display as the older Blade 16, which we said in our review was one of the best OLED displays on a gaming laptop – the 2025 Blade 16’s display produces exceptional, vibrant colours.
While the exact price of the Blade 16 has yet to be confirmed, we know it won’t be cheap. The model that we tested last year came with a GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU and was priced at S$5,399 so it’s safe to assume the 2025 Blade 16 will sit at the higher end of the gaming laptop spectrum, especially given Razer’s premium positioning in the market. However, with the combination of thinner design, next-gen hardware, and improved thermal management, the good-looking 2025 Blade 16 is a solid contender in the competitive gaming laptop market when it launches in early 2025.
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.